Continue to Site

Eng-Tips is the largest engineering community on the Internet

Intelligent Work Forums for Engineering Professionals

  • Congratulations IDS on being selected by the Eng-Tips community for having the most helpful posts in the forums last week. Way to Go!

GD&T is it a philosophy 5

Status
Not open for further replies.

fsincox

Aerospace
Aug 1, 2002
1,261
I am interested in hearing the different points of view on your philosophy to GD&T.
As new draftsman we had always been told “you can’t use bolt circles, only co-ordinates” and “don’t dimension from centerlines, only edges” I suspect these are a lot like the caliper guys of today. When I was first trained in Y14.5-1982 in 1987 I found it a very liberating. The philosophy I was told was if it did not violate the basic rules or is not prohibited by the standard it was OK, Notes on drawings were not desired because of language barriers, but in extreme cases, you may need to supplement with a note to explain what you intend. The sense I got was it was a tool kit to be used and the simplistic examples in the text were just that, period. The book certainly did not explore the limits of what can be done it was more of a universal language that would be built upon as languages do. English, for example, has had words like computer and geometric dimensioning and tolerancing added to it (my MS word still thinks tolerancing is not a word or is misspelled). We all know it is a word.
In my first job AGDT (After GD&T Training) I worked with a lot of machines and a lot of dowels patterns that people always wanted located to unimportant edges (“the from the edge guys”, always 2 dowels in case some don’t know), I said: “fine, we have this new tool called composite position tolerancing that was perfect for that”. Eventually, the question was asked: “now, can we put an orientation on the centerline between the dowels to refine for orientation”. “Not in the ANSI world”, I said, “this is explicitly prohibited”, if we were ISO well life would have been easy. I was told the committee was working on just that issue, and, the restatement of secondary datums in a composite position tolerance would do just that. We were also instructed that since the standard did not actually show it we may want to add a flagnote to explain what we meant. This practice is part of the standard now and since Y14.5-1994 an accepted practice, some apparently argued it was implied before in the 82, but, it was not explicitly shown.
Out here in the real world we do not always have time to wait for the politicians to make decisions, the job has a deadline and we need tools to do the job. MMC and LMC (also a new concept at the time) are good valid tools, adding it to profile tolerances to get the job done foe the heavy hitters is great, but why take it away from the poor little radius, Is it really because it is hard to measure? Life isn’t always easy.
There’s lots I want to get into with guys who are interested in exploring ideas.
Like:
To circle “E” or to circle “I”, that is the question?
Why not true position of a surface instead of profile?
Why perpendicular and parallel, not just orientation?
Is a feature defined by a radius really different than the same one defined as diameter?
Doesn’t anyone out there use the dreaded ISO and like it?
How can rule #1 not be a violation of all the logic all we are trained in as engineers and assume the worst case, as ISO does, by the way. Must we cling to our calipers in one hand and our concept that we will someday actually produced that perfect feature at MMC in the other? (When I am asked by the shop to accept an oversize shaft is it more perfect, then?)
Anyway thanks, if you bothered to read this far, I guess I will get off my soapbox for now to give someone else a chance.
 
Replies continue below

Recommended for you

Dave,

I'm not sure what you're asking here either. Your question is how to tolerance the location of a hole when orientation is the only requirement? This comes across as self-contradictory. Everything John-Paul has said so far sounds perfectly reasonable to me.

Perhaps we're getting confused as to what you mean by "the hole only has an angularity requirement". Do you mean:

a) The only functional requirement for the feature is angularity

b) The only geometric control currently specified for the feature is an angularity FCF, and for some reason the angularity has to remain the only geometric control for the feature

I assumed you meant a) and it appears that John-Paul did as well. Can you clarify?

Evan Janeshewski

Axymetrix Quality Engineering Inc.
 
JP,

Yes, I am saying the standard should spell it out because as you can read, people do it all the time.

I am still reading the other stuff to comment.

Norm Crawford
GDTP-S
Applied Geometrics, Inc.
 
Dave,

If orientation is the ONLY requirement, then why would you need to locate it with a +/- dimension at all?

Norm Crawford
GDTP-S
Applied Geometrics, Inc.
 
A hole CAN certainly only have an orientation control without location. That would be when the hole is oriented to a datum feature and then acts as secondary datum feature; maybe a teriary but I can't think of a case like that right now.

A hole that is not a datum feature must be located. And yes, it can be located with a mickey mouse +/- dimension, but that would be giving manufacturing 57% less tolerance area to hit the functional mark than position provides. Why would a designer want to do that? That is why position should be used.

Norm Crawford
GDTP-S
Applied Geometrics, Inc.
 
Norm, I suppose I agree with you. But I wonder if the standard would become too pedantic if it spelled out every possible infraction in detail!

Dave, I guess the closest thing to a rule regarding the use of +/- for location would be paragraph 2.1.1.1 of the new standard.

OK -- that's enough GD&T for a Sunday for me...

John-Paul Belanger
Certified Sr. GD&T Professional
 
Norm:

You said "And yes, it can be located with a mickey mouse +/- dimension, but that would be giving manufacturing 57% less tolerance area to hit the functional mark than position provides. Why would a designer want to do that? That is why position should be used."

What this tells me if we have a hole located with a +/- is that the location of the hole is not important to its function where the angle is important. We probably would not include this hole in our Control Plan nor would we make a checking fixture for it. It certainly would be confirmed on sample submission and yearly full layout.

On the other hand, the angularity would be confirm on a regular basis reflected in the Control Plan.

Please note on page 100 of the 2009 standard fig. 6.2 showing a parallelism tolerance of 0.12 mm from datum A. Also from datum A, there is a dimension of 26.6 - 26.9.

Fig. 6-18 on page 107 also has a linear tolerance to a surface.

Looks like we can dimension a linear tolerance to a surface from a datum. If we use any of the angles as a refinement, then the location must be shown in a basic dimension. If not, we must use a linear tolerance for location of the feature.

Dave D.
 
JP, to your earlier post; as Dave can attest, it has been a common practice in some sectors to use a "straight edge" (i.e. simulator) to represent one surface, and measure the +/- from that straight edge; that makes it what I call a "defacto datum". Though that may have been a common practice, it's not backed up by any recognized standard that anyone can produce. As a result, Norm's suggestion that it be specifically precluded within the standard is a good one; it would definitively end the debate.

Jim Sykes, P.Eng, GDTP-S
Profile Services TecEase, Inc.
 
Dave,

The figures you cite are totally different from the discussion about the hole with angularity. Figs 6-2 and 6-18 use +/- dims for the feature of size, and the GD&T is merely applied to the surfaces.

You had asked about location control of a hole in conjunction with an orientation control.

So it's fine to use +/- to dimension a height. But when locating a feature of size, +/- is discouraged by para. 2.1.1.1.

John-Paul Belanger
Certified Sr. GD&T Professional
 
John-Paul:

Yes I do agree that paragraph 2.1.1.1 notes that features of size are "preferable" by using the "positional tolerance method" but it does not state mandatory. It IS still legal to use linear tolerancing on a hole as agreed by Norm (called it mickey mouse) and linear dimensions have their usefulness on a drawing.

If we have a hole with only an angularity geometric requirement in the FCF, we must not use a basic dimension but a linear one. This does comply with the standard.

For the people, especially trainers, who claim that all surfaces must have a profile of surface tolerance and all holes must have a positional tolerances are losing sight that we should be reflecting the functional needs of the feature, if it does indeed have one. It is also in compliance to the newest ASME standard to have dimensions to surfaces with a linear tolerances. It is also in compliance (but not preferable) to have locations of features of size shown with a linear tolerance.

Hopefully, the functional needs of each feature will determine how one selects the tolerancing method.


Dave D.
 
Regarding whether it should state in the standard that +/- linear dimensions of location should not be measured using a datum feature simulator, I would say it should not. In third-party textbooks or application guides, sure, but not in the standard itself. Even if "people do it all the time".

The standard cannot (and should not) make warnings about potential misunderstandings of its content and, excuse the term, bad practices. The list would be endless. Should the standard warn against using 3 or 4 CMM points to establish a datum plane, even though the proper simulator and high point plane concepts are clearly explained and illustrated? Or warn against verifying a size tolerance using just a pair of calipers, when Rule #1 and the MMC boundary requirement are there in black and white? People those things all the time too.

Practices like using a simulator for size measurements were developed by inspectors, like Dave at his old job, in a well-intentioned effort to get repeatable measurements for plus/minus tolerances that were ambiguously defined. Examples could include the height or width of the part in Fig. 6-4 of '09, or the location of a hole. The meaning of the tolerance is open to interpretation, so you pick one and go with it.

In many cases (like the largely unopposed height dimension in Fig. 6-4), using the simulator results in the size tolerance being inspected as though it were Surface Profile. Which is probably what should have been specified in the first place, even on a "non-functional" feature!

Evan Janeshewski

Axymetrix Quality Engineering Inc.
 
"Hopefully, the functional needs of each feature will determine how one selects the tolerancing method."

Agreed!

My point was that if you choose to forego the recommendations of the standard, you need to hope and pray that the inspector sets up the implied datums in the correct sequence (the +/- dims still have to originate from two or more surfaces). Wouldn't it be better to avoid ambiguity and simply give a very generous position FCF with the datums clearly spelled out?

But yes, until the standard makes 2.1.1.1 more forceful than a recommendation, I'll just take a page from Norm and suggest that ASME use stronger language next time.

John-Paul Belanger
Certified Sr. GD&T Professional
 
Perhaps the standard should include more "means this" figures. There is a noticeable lack of such figures relating to directly toleranced dimensions.

There could be an example of plus/minus tolerances used to locate a hole. Then a series of figures:

This: Means this, and this, and this, and this, and maybe this ...

Evan Janeshewski

Axymetrix Quality Engineering Inc.
 
I am curious if the problems you see with +/- dims apply to the ISO definition as well? I believe the ISO definition of a +/- dimension requires measurement at the points on the surface closest to the feature and then all points must fall within. Each direction is independent so there is no primary/secondary to account for.
I am not saying it is ideal but it does seem to me to avoid the issues you are bringing up here.
My point with angularity was that there is defiantly a case to be made for saying we really want things to be good simultaneously. But there are a lot of +/- drawing out there they need to have some definition.
 
My take is that the ISO definitions are no different in regards to the issue of using +/- versus position for location controls.

When locating a feature of size, either in ISO or ASME, the world of +/- leaves some ambiguity.

I think you're just talking about a feature of size dimension, not location. So +/- is not a problem in either ISO or ASME. The only difference, of course, is that ASME imposes Rule #1 for form control, and ISO does not (unless the E symbol...)

John-Paul Belanger
Certified Sr. GD&T Professional
 
Right, the good old CSA standards. Yeah, well, um ... I'm not familiar enough with those (or the ISO standards) to know what to say about that excerpt. Jim, Dave, any comments?

Evan Janeshewski

Axymetrix Quality Engineering Inc.
 
In summary, I never said one can't nor that the standard ever stated that one can't use a +/- linear dimension for location. I only said that it is bad practice IMHO.
The physical reality of locating holes with position tolerance has been proven for many years; just do the math.
There is no reason a position tolerance has to provide a "generous" tolerance to allow for an angularity refinement. The position tolerance should be calculated; simple as that. If an orientation refinement is needed then we have both multi-segment FCFS and composite tolerancing.

Working world wide and wanting to be class A, I as a long time designer does not want someone "picking" a way they personally feel like inspecting my parts.

The figures Dave mentions, as already stated, are dimensioning features of size. The +/- size tolerances do NOT originate from the datum feature. If they did, the origination symbol should be used to state that interpretation. The orientation refinement of one surface of the FOS is only that and again, I will say that it is a requirement that I would question in a valued design review. yes, there can be times thatone side of a FOS has an addtional requirement and thus Y14.5 tools provide for that flexibility. But the size tolerance should be checked for "local" size throught the feature of size. Making a guess, in fig 6-2, that the block may be placed on a datum feature simulator and tehn measure from the simulator to the top surface to inspect the 26.6-26.9 dimension would be incorrect and NOT checking for size. Form errors could easily exist on the surface designated as datum feature A for other relationship requirements that could easily cause the FOS requirement to fail while passing a profile inspection set-up much like someone my incorrectly guess at doing.
Let's try this, what is the allowable form error on the feature in fig6-2 identified as a datum featue A as shown? And would setting that feature up on a simulator check for that form error? Would form error be an independent check or root cause analysis?

Norm Crawford
GDTP-S
Applied Geometrics, Inc.
 
Good comments, Norm. I was the one who said that a position tolerance could provide a "generous" tolerance in conjunction with an angularity refinement. I only mentioned this because a previous post had implied that a feature whose location is not important can use +/- location. I meant that even non-critical locations should still use GD&T, but they would have a larger tolerance than the 0.2 or 0.5 examples often given in the standard. But of course the actual tolerance should be calculated based on function.

The form error on a datum feature is often overlooked. I'll throw another variation into your questions: If Fig. 6-2 used profile of a surface across the top, and also showed the height as a basic dimension, then a flatness tolerance must be included along the bottom, because as you've pointed out, simply calling something a datum feature means squat when it comes to form error.

John-Paul Belanger
Certified Sr. GD&T Professional
 
Roget that JP.
Watch out now though. Although I would certainly use flatness, it is not a MUST. One could use profile there too without a datum reference.

Norm Crawford
GDTP-S
Applied Geometrics, Inc.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Part and Inventory Search

Sponsor